Creswell mayor dead at 62

CRESWELL -- Creswell Mayor Ron Petitti has lost his battle with cancer. He was 62.

Petitti requested a leave of absence from his mayoral duties last fall so he could pursue treatment of a lung tumor. The City Council voted just last week to extend that leave through the end of the year.

Petitti was in his third two-year term after easily winning re-election in 2006. He led efforts to improve Creswell's downtown, main street, parks and water treatment plant, and was an avid community volunteer even before he became mayor.

Carrie Petitti wants her husband's early death to serve as a warning against smoking. She says he husband wasn't a heavy smoker and had quit by the time his lung cancer was diagnosed.